As she sent the order down to her followers, Sacred busied herself with locating the dumb tree. Which, despite it supposedly being the biggest tree in the world, was actually quite difficult.

Finally, a dozen or so minutes later, her senses finally pinpointed its location. Getting up from her throne in an almost lazy fashion, Sacred stretched her sore body.

"My Lord, the people have heard your command and are now hiding as best they can." She heard from Helen, who was currently also hiding.

"Perfect. Be aware that I will not be holding back, and some crossfire will be inevitable." She dully replied, still stretching slightly.

Finally, when she felt the tree move away from its location and towards the remaining elves, she allowed herself a small smile.

"The final showdown... Well, I guess I finally get to fight my own fight."

~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, the elven king Karl was having the shock of his life.

"What do you mean the Great Tree has awakened? Is it because of the humans?" Karl could feel a deep chill going down all the way to feet.

For thousands of years, the Great Tree had laid dormant. Even during the Great Race War hundreds of years ago, it wasn't enough to warrant it's attention.

"So... that Lord of the humans isn't fake?" His wife asked cautiously. She was still quite shaken from when she had been used as a hostage, and that Lord of the shadowy figure had cleared up a lot of confusion.

"I don't know..." Karl sighed in regret. It was obvious that this was no longer a battle between races, but rather, a war between deities.

It had been quite obvious the humans had a great backing for quite a while. After all, although getting basically any information on what was happening on the human side was borderline impossible due to a variety of reasons, they were still able to figure out quite a bit.

From the birth of Jade City to the creation of a special class of warriors capable of matching their own wizards, and priests capable of going toe to toe with their shamans. There was no way all of that had been made by simple humans in the minds of Karl and his wife.

"We can only hope the Great Tree emerges victorious once more. Were it to lose... I don't want to think about it." Karl grimaced as he confided his insecurities to his dear wife, who could only hug him with empty comfort.

The athmosphere in the remaining elven people was horrible. Many had died from starvation despite the magicians' and king's best efforts, and more or less everyone had been forced to flee and abandon everything. Furthermore, their beastman and demon 'allies' had also abandoned them, and most suspected them of beginning to even corroborate with the human scum.

And, while the king had tried rallying the other races to arms once more against the humans, it had been all useless. Both demons and beastmen had been frightened silly by the weird powers of the human forces, and how they somehow always knew where they were coming and always met them with their full forces.

All in all, odds were that the elves would likely be subjugated or destroyed in less than a dozen years, unless something drastic were to happen.

Something... like a certain tree demigod showing up.

And indeed, as Karl rejectedly tried to command his subordinates to try and organize things up, a great quake began to throb through the land, threatening to knock down buildings, trees and people like dominos.

As panic spread through the entire area, large roots began to rise from the ground, with each being at minimum the thickness of an entire tree. Then, a stupidly big tree shot up from the ground and into the heavens.

While most common elves and some members of other races panicked, the nobles and royals elves were ready for this to happen. Their shamans had long since felt the awakening of their patron deity, and they prepared to welcome it.

Unfortunately for them, their divine tree was not quite in the mood for pleasantries.

Having been forcefully awoken from it's slumber by the strange aura of another demigod daring to enter into it's territory, it was ready to forcefully remove this cancerous tumor that dared spread through it's land.

However, it first needed to collect something: the Life-Giving Necklace.

But, as soon as it spread it's will through the area and found the current elven emperor, the artifact wasn't on him.

"Emperor of the Elves, where is the divine artifact?" It questioned in a booming voice that came from it's entire body. The sound was mystical in nature, quite similar in fact to Sacred's own, able to spread through the area without losing or gaining volume.

Eyes wide, Karl immediately bowed as deeply as he physically could while answering. "My apologies, my godliness. The divine artifact of the royal family was stolen some years ago from a powerful assassin claiming to be under the Lord of the humans!"

"AND YOU DID NOTHING!?" The God-Tree roared back. Initially, it thought it might just have been hidden, but stolen?"

By now, the elven nobles had long realized their god wasn't exactly... friendly. Many faces drained of blood as they remembered the legends of the brutality and sheer bloodlust their god was rumored to possess.

And indeed, the God-Tree was feeling incredibly murderous. However, before it could exact it's punishment, it felt it's danger sense flare up drastically.

Reacting within the same instant, it immediately activated all of it's defenses as roots shot up and tried to block the supposed attack coming. However, it was too slow.

A horrifying strike landed fully upon the God-Tree's trunk, and although it failed to break it in half, it sufficed to shatter the outside and middle layer of it's body and send it skidding backwards even as the remaining roots in the ground failed to hold it.

As the dust cleared and both attacker and defender were revealed, a golden-clad figure with large wings hovered in mid-air, idly checking over it's knuckles. On the other side, the God-Tree stood, as tall as the heavens and already fully healed from the attack.

"You know, for all the fanfare and pompousness that you showed up with... You're really not all that strong." Sacred Light commented with a dark smile on her face. The God-Tree said nothing as it sized it's opponent up.

Despite being extremely tall for a humanoid, standing at well over 2 meters in height and with a relatively slim build, her appearance hid the strength it carried, while all the yellow outside hid the darkness within. A darkness that the God-Tree would never fail to detect.

"I was wondering why you would head to your little minions immediately after awakening instead of coming to face me. But... Perhaps, it's because of..." Sacred's already dark smile only widened. "This?"

A fancy necklace appeared in her hands out of nothingness. The God-Tree's 'heart' dropped as anxiety spread through it.

"You filthy thief... I will enjoy consuming your flesh and blood." It hissed with venom strong enough to melt steel. Unfortunately, Sacred was no man of steel, but rather, a fearsome divinity capable of shattering entire mountains with her pinky.

As the two divinities exchanged garbs, the elves below, or at least those powerful enough to see, could only gawk.

While their patron god wasn't exactly part of their daily lives, it was still considered the creator god of all life and whatnot. Thus, for another being to be able to harm it... Well, it wasn't easy for them to comprehend.

However, it didn't matter whether they understood it or not, Karl thought idly. He wasn't dumb enough to think their patron god cared enough to protect them, and he wasn't naive enough to believe the human lord, or rather, lady(?) would spare them.

And indeed, as Sacred began getting increasingly annoyed at the God-Tree lack of any response after the initial threat, she chose to take the initiative as she rose to the skies and pointed upward with her hand.

"I suppose it was not a pleasure at all meeting you. I'm going to enjoy my stay on this world after you're returned back to nothingness." She snarled as she activated her technique.

Giant skulls of varying creatures formed out of nothingness, appearing in the skies above. Instantly, the God-Tree shot into action with a roar as thousands of giant roots tore through the earth and shot up towards Sacred.

However, it was too little too late as Sacred roared back, and immediately all the hundreds of skulls opened their mouths as golden dots appeared in their eye sockets.

With a thunderous sound, they began to fire light rays towards the God-Tree, annihilating everything in their path as they attempted to evaporate Sacred's enemy.

Not to be outdone, the God-Tree called up even more power as the roots began to multiply drastically and become even larger and more powerful. Hundreds of thousands of more roots shot out of it's body and into the fray, attempting to get past the cannons and destroy Sacred Light herself.

Seeing this, Sacred's smile fell as she got serious. Tens of thousands of new skulls appeared all around her and began to bombard the God-Tree as well.

"Ancient Warrior Transformation!" The God-Tree roared as Sacred was busy annihilating all the incoming roots. It's tree-like body began to shift and change as it transformed into a more humanoid version, and within instants, it was more akin to a giant made of wood and bark.

"... You know, if you weren't all woody and stuff, I'd even find that form attractive." Sacred commented as she eyed the new form of the God-Tree carefully even as her cannons took care of the stubborn roots still charging at her."

Instead of answering, the God-Tree charged forward itself, weilding it's own body as a deadly weapon as the very ground shattered under it. In fact, many elves, all of them loyal worshippers of it, were pancaked as it charged.

Seeing the threat incoming, Sacred narrowed her eyes as she too charged forward, punching through any root that wasn't annihilated by her still roaring cannons.

The two divinities met in a thunderous clash. Sacred's much smaller body dodged and weaved around the God-Tree's mountain-sized fists, but her own punches failed to inflict any real damage.

Eventually, after a couple seconds that were actually akin to hours for the two fighters, Sacred chose to disengage as one of the God-Tree's fists almost touched her.

"You have great strength... but your domain is so pathetic I can barely feel it. You're no deity, you're just a disgusting brute!" Sacred roared, now throughtly annoyed at her failure to completely trash the much inferior opponent.

In truth, what she said was true and the God-Tree knew it. However, because of her pride and stubborness, she chose to continue engaging in close-combat fighting instead of fighting from afar, utilizing her comprehension to trash it, and the God-Tree happily seized the opportunity.

Choosing to once more ignore her, the God-Tree gave chase even as Sacred retreated. Eyes flashing with hatred, Sacred clapped her hands together hard enough to produce a shockwave. She kept them still for an instant before pointing them at the God-Tree, who had been forced to stop it's charge in order to defend itself from the cannons that had finished up with the roots and began to bombard it.

"Great Light Annihition" She roared as two flashes of light escaped her hands and headed for the God-Tree. They were so stupidly fast that they reached it basically immediately.

Two horrifying explosions tore through the area as the animals, trees and whatever else was still in the area around them were incinirated. The God-Tree itself didn't escape the consequences as it roared in pain, two giant holes having been burned into it's side.

Retreating even further backwards, Sacred glared at the God-Tree as it's wounds more or less instantly healed before smirking. "You know... You might win with attrition... But, can you catch me?"

And with that, she flew away at top speeds, stunning the God-Tree for an instant before it chased after her with a terrifying roar the next moment.